


i refuse to title this skinny love

by Underthenarniansun



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan
Genre: Angst, Anorexia, Eating Disorder, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, solangelo
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-14
Updated: 2020-04-14
Packaged: 2021-03-02 03:41:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,540
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23648647
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Underthenarniansun/pseuds/Underthenarniansun
Summary: it’s a self serving ed recovery story tbh ft  solangelo
Relationships: Nico di Angelo & Will Solace
Kudos: 54





	i refuse to title this skinny love

**Author's Note:**

> tw for discussion of an eating disorder
> 
> please don’t read if it’ll trigger you!

Three days had passed and Nico was dismissed from the infirmary, with an order to check in twice a week. 

“That’s barely being free.” Nico grumbled. 

Will shrugged, “Doctor’s orders.”

Nico glared at him before quickly turning away as the glare faded and turned into a soft smile, stalking off to the Hades cabin. 

Will leaned against the wall of the infirmary, smiling to himself. He was really going to miss having Nico around all the time, but the check ups would be enough, he thought. 

His crush on Nico had started ages ago, when, during the Battle of Manhattan. 

Nico had blazed in, his Stygian Iron sword in hand, on that chariot with his father. Eyes fierce and unafraid. He had taken Will’s breath away. 

The first check in wasn’t extremely concerning. It was just a few days after Nico had been discharged. 

“You’ve lost a little weight.” Will said, “You still need to gain back what you lost from... you know. I can set you up with Kayla for meal planning to help.”

“Not necessary.” Nico said quickly. “Can I leave?”

“Let me check your vitals first.”

And then Nico left with an appointment to come back in in two to three days. 

“Nico, you really need to eat more.” Will said, looking at the scale Nico was standing on and back at his notes from last week, as he had had to track Nico down and drag him to the infirmary after he skipped two check ups. “You were already an unhealthy weight, it’s just getting worse.”

Nico shrugged, refusing to meet Will’s eyes, “It’s fine.”

“No, Nico, it really isn’t. You’re anemic. And your bone density is weakening, although you may be the only demigod who could fix that. Your creatinine levels are almost double what they should be and you’re orthostatic. I’m going to need you to stay in the infirmary for at least two days while we monitor you and give you fluids.”

“Will-“ Nico started protesting. 

“Nope. No arguments. I told you two weeks ago that you needed to start putting on weight and Gods I was dumb to not realize earlier. You think I don’t know what an eating disorder is, Nico?”

Nico didn’t say anything.

Two hours into giving Nico fluids, Will went to change the bag. He had poked his head in a couple of times to check on him, but Nico has been asleep. 

“Hey Death Boy.” Will said as he opened the curtains surrounding Nico’s bed. “How’re we doing?”

“Fine.” Nico said shortly. Then added, sounding embarrassed, “I really have to go to the bathroom.”

Will laughed, “Yeah, fluids do that to people.” And he showed Nico how to take the contraption holding the bag of fluids that connected to the tubing in his arm into the bathroom. 

A minute later, Nico came back, carefully getting back up on the hospital bed and staring a bit at Will as he switched the fluid bags. 

They didn’t talk much the rest of the time, Will just periodically checking in on him and trying to set him up with a dietician session with Kayla, which Nico continuously refused. 

Finally, after a day of fluids and a day of being monitored where Will tried to encourage him to eat more, but was ignored, Nico was excused. 

“Two days.” Will said. “I want you back in two days.”

Nico rolled his eyes, “Aye aye captain.”

Two days passed and Nico didn’t show up. Will spent the time he had after his shift and before curfew scouring the camp for him, but no one had seen him all day. 

Finally, as he heard the shrieks of distant cleaving harpies, he went back to the Apollo cabin, set on finding Nico tomorrow. 

But he couldn’t. It was like the boy had disappeared into the shadows, which, considering he could actually do, if he had, Will would kill him for. 

“Nico showed up for Capture the Flag.” One of Will’s brothers told him as he walked past the infirmary, where Will was putting together a kit to take care of hopefully any injury that would happen.

“He- I- Come on, let’s go.” Will said, grabbing what was left to be packed, shoving it into the case, and setting off at a brisk pace. 

By the time they got there, the campers had dispersed. 

“Have you seen di Angelo?” Will asked every bystander, but they all said he had disappeared as soon as the game had started. 

Will paced for a long time. Glancing around every few seconds to see if maybe Nico had emerged from the woods yet. 

Forty five minutes into the game, Percy Jackson burst into the clearing, eyes zeroing in on Will. 

“Will-“ he gasped, out of breath from sprinting, “It’s Nico.”

Without needed another word, Will raced after Percy, a decent distance into the woods until they happened upon Nico, laying against a tree, deathly still. 

“Is he-?” Percy asked. 

Will didn’t respond, just dropped to his knees and checked for a pulse. “He’s alive. He’s a fucking idiot but he’s alive. Help me take him to the infirmary?”

Percy, still looking concerned, borderline scared, helped pick Nico up, the two boys carefully carrying him out of the forest and to where Will hoped he could help him. 

When Nico woke up, he was in the infirmary, with Will Solace glaring down at him. 

“What the fuck, di Angelo? You know you almost died, right?”

Nico hesitated for a second.

“In Tartarus-“ He started. “I was stuck in a jar and all I had were pomegranate seeds to eat. I didn’t know how long I was going to be down there, but I knew that those were keeping me alive and that if I ran out, I would die.”

“I couldn’t tell how much time was passing, but whenever I could sense my own death, I would eat one. It became a kind of game for me though. How close can I get to death without actually dying? How far can I push it before I have to save myself? And I guess I kept it up when I left. I just want to see how long I can go, how close I can get. And if I die, it can’t be worse than Tartarus or the nightmares I still have about it.”

Nico fell silent. 

“Nico,” Will said, “Would it be okay if- if I organized some campers to help you? Kayla could help with eating and someone from the Hypnos cabin for sleep and there’s an Athena camper that’s really good at therapy. I just really really think it could help. Just, please let me try to help you. Not fix you, just help you find your way to help yourself. To at least keep you alive.”

“I-“ Nico suddenly looked so young and so vulnerable, he choked back a sob, his fists clenching to the point where his knuckles turned white.

“Hey,” Will said softly, taking Nico’s hands and gently unfurling them. “It’s okay Neeks. You’ll be okay. Food isn’t easy but we’ll make it tolerable, but we’ve got to stabilize you first.”

“Why?”

“What do you mean ‘why’?” 

“I mean why do you care so much?”

“Because I care about you dumbass.”

“But- why?”

Will sighed, “Because I like you.”

Nico looked at him for a minute, his expression indecipherable. “Okay.” He said quietly. 

“Okay?”

“Yeah, okay. I’ll try. I really will. Whatever you think will help.

Will smiled at him, “You know you’ll still have to have check ins with me, right?”

“Of course, sunshine. Looking forward to it.”

Two years later, Nico was thriving. When he started eating, at first it was awful, physically and mentally, but after a few months, he was at a healthy weight. A few months after that, he had apparently recovered so well that he hit a massive growth spurt, he now was taller than Will, Percy, and even Jason. A few weeks after his weight began stabilizing, Will lifted his exercice ban and Nico was allowed to start training again. 

To be honest, Nico looked hot as fuck, and everyone had noticed. 

But what Will found even more captivating than his looks, which were definitely extremely captivating, was the effort Nico had put into recovery. Will knew it hadn’t been easy. There were some days where Nico would drag him away from the Dining Hall for extra support during or after meals. Will knew that Nico struggled with the loss of the control his eating disorder had given him.

But he had been really trying, and it was paying off. It seemed like it had been getting easier day by day, which Nico confirmed. 

“Hey, Solace?” Nico’s voice came from the door leading into the infirmary. “I never really got to thank you, you know? For pushing me to get better and I- well, I really like you. I have for a long time now and I was wondering, can I take you out to dinner? I’ll pay.”

“The Dining Hall is free, idiot.”

Nico smirked, “Is that a yes then?”

Will rolled his eyes, grinning back at him, “It’s a yes, Danny Phantom.”

“Who the fuck is that?”

**Author's Note:**

> thank you so much for reading! i’ve actually had this one in my notes app for MONTHS i just never published it. it was written for my friend for his birthday 
> 
> my tumblr is underthenarniansun, feel free to follow me there, say hi, send requests, etc!


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